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Here are a few Reviews of NPCs I made, after checking out the ones for the BGI NPCs, it's not complete and my all accounts I may have sized up the NPCs wrong. So any additions, or changes would be appreciated.


Aerie
Class: Cleric/Mage
Race: Elf (Wingless Avariel)
Extra Abilities: N/A
Stats: Str:10, Dex:17, Con:9, Int: 16, Wis: 16, Cha: 14

About Aerie:
Aerie in my opinion is a fantastic Cleric and Mage. Though she isn’t as good as Viconia or Edwin in their specialised fields, but then few are, and she only progresses slightly behind other spell casters. Some might consider her a secondary Mage and cleric, but I think her abilities are much better than that. Teamed up with another mage and another cleric she should complete most parties. On top of this she gains HLAs from both her Classes.

Some people complain about her whining but I don’t think that is really a big issue, and has some nice party interactions.

Quests: Rescuing Aerie form the Circus in Waukeen’s Promenade.

Rating:8/10 (You could get more out of a spell caster but then you would need two)


Cernd
Class: Druid (Shapeshifter)
Race: Human
Extra Abilities: None, save those form his Class.
Stats: Str: 13, Dex: 9, Con: 13, Int: 12, Wis: 18, Cha: 15

About Cernd:
I only had Cernd in my party for a while but I think he is a lost cause. When in his Werewolf form, his is an OK fighter, but nothing worth writing home to candle keep about. When he attains his Greater werewolf form he becomes slightly better. If you patch him, so he gets his actual Stats he is meant to when shape shifted he is worth having, but only just. Outside of this Shapeshifted form he is cannon fodder. That Dexterity and the inability to wear armour (‘Class ability’) makes him mince meat in the line of fire. Whoever if he can be kept out of combat, his 18 Wisdom gives him enough spells to be worth it. However if you give him healing spells, he has to pop out of Wereform, find the party member, get into the firing line Unarmoured and cast the spell.

I don’t think his part banter is all that great, but if played through for longer it might turn out ok.

Quests: Trademeet druids

Rating: 6/10 (If you can sort out when to have him in battle, and getting him out to cast spells, he should be good, but it’s too much hassle for me.)



Imoen
Class: Mage-]Theif (Dual Class at level 7)
Race: Human
Extra Abilities: None, save those form her Class.
Stats: Str: 9, Dex: 18, Con: 16, Int: 17, Wis: 11, Cha: 16

About Imoen:
Imoen is a very solid character. She has enough Thief skills to open most locks and disarm most traps. Plus she makes a very decent mage. Her strength isn’t an issue but her constitution makes her hard wearing enough to go into close combat for some of the game, at least to deliver spell touch attacks. Also you can arm her with a bow, and she won’t do badly as a secondary archer.

Imoen has some nice party banter with most people.

Quests: Rescue from Spell Hold.

Rating: 9/10 (Fantastic party member)

Jaheira
Class: Fighter/Druid
Race: Half-elf
Extra Abilities: None, save those form her Class.
Stats: Str: 15, Dex: 17, Con: 17, Int: 10, Wis: 14, Cha: 15

About Jaheira
Another solid character. Her Dex and Con make her a very good fighter, allowing her to get low AC and High HP. The Wisdom doesn’t help much but her unique druid spells, and the fact that compared to Cernd she rocks, makes her a good secondary ‘priest’. The best Druid. Not much else to say.

Jaheira interacts with plenty of people, one of the most in the game if I recall correctly. She even has a romance!

Quests: Numerous, and worthwhile ‘Harper’ related quests.

Rating: 8/10 (Solid, very solid)


Mazzy
Class: Fighter
Race: Halfling
Extra Abilities: Courage: Remove fear centered on Mazzy, Strength as the spell.
Stats: Str: 15, Dex: 18, Con: 16, Int: 10, Wis: 13, Cha: 14

About Mazzy:
Give her a bow and she’ll be happy, Even more so as her middling strength isn’t great in sword-to-face combat. Her special abilities are quite handy, but not game breaking. I didn’t have her in my party long enough to really see how she kept up with other fighters in the party.
Mazzy has some quite nice reactions to others, but her Lawful Good nature can make her a bit of a party pooper.

Rating: 7/10


Minsc
Class: Ranger
Race: Human
Extra Abilities: Boo.
Stats: Str: 18/93, Dex: 16, Con: 16, Int: 8, Wis: 6, Cha: 9

About Minsc:
Don’t be fooled by Minsc’s low mental Stats, that bump on the head hasn’t stopped him being a fantastic warrior. In most runs through he is my primary fighter. He annihilates most enemies, my only issue is with which weapons?

Minsc has hilarious comments and interjections with almost every joinable and non-joinable NPC.

Rating 8/10

Get Shadowkeeper you can change the NPC'c proficiencies, readjust theif stats and whatever else you want to do. I always change Minsc's prof and usually make him either a berzerker or a barbarian because they are better fits for him.
Other than Cernd I think all of the NPC's that bioware provides are on pretty equal standing powerwise class not withstanding.
Edwin is the best Arkane Caster
Viconia is the best divine caster although Anomen is more powerfull because of his fighter levels.
Korgan's the best fighter classed tank.
Aerie and HaerDilas may be the most powerful NPC's that the game provides but you have to know how to use them.

My favorite NPC's are Aerie and Imoen. I alwasy keep Imoen and Aerie seems to find a way into most of my parties as well.

I don't really like editing the other charaters except maybe their proficiencies...I don't know why Minsc has Mace use... I try not to though...

What makes Viconia, Edwin and Korgan so good though?

Craig wrote:I don't really like editing the other charaters except maybe their proficiencies...I don't know why Minsc has Mace use... I try not to though...

What makes Viconia, Edwin and Korgan so good though?

Edwin can cast 2 extra spells per level.

Viconia is a pure classed cleric with high wisdom and very high natural magical resistance, she's really not much better as a caster than Anomen IMO because they both level up so fast that her 1st-4th level bonus spells from higher wisdom don;t really matter anymore.

Korgan has the highest constitution, most hit points and berzerker rage which sets him apart a bit from the other fighter types. Of course Keldorn with a certain 2 handed sword, guantlets of dexterity, a belt of strength and caotic commands cast on him is better at taking out spell casters.

With the right items any NPC used to maximize their abilities is a powerhouse.

Viconia is a pure classed cleric with high wisdom and very high natural magical resistance, she's really not much better as a caster than Anomen IMO because they both level up so fast that her 1st-4th level bonus spells from higher wisdom don;t really matter anymore.

She also has an extremely high DEX, which means little chance of disruption from non-magical ranged attacks. For what that's worth. Which generally isn't much.

fable wrote:She also has an extremely high DEX, which means little chance of disruption from non-magical ranged attacks. For what that's worth. Which generally isn't much.

Yes, good point Fable. I think she easily starts out the game as the best divine caster but as the game moves on her advantages are not as meaningfull.

Minsc has proficiencies in mace because his species enemy is vampire and there is a Mace of Disruption to be found :mischief:

He had that in BG1, and then his Enemy was Gnolls back then.

Ok so here is Viconia, I'll tell you all more once I actually play test her.

Viconia
Class: Cleric
Race: Elf (drow)
Extra Abilities: Magic Resistance
Stats: Str:10, Dex:19, Con:8, Int: 16, Wis: 18, Cha: 14

About Viconia:
Viconia is possibly the best Cleric in the game, great wisdom, high magic resistance, insanely high dexterity. Don’t put her in the frontline though, as that Constitution makes her fragile. And I guess that high intelligence makes her lore good. And improves saves. Maybe. Does anyone know how these work?

She can be quite nasty as she is evil. But during the romance you can turn her neutral, but I don’t know if she gets nicer.

Rating: 9/10

In your opinion, what NPC would get a full ten?

I honestly think that Aerie is tied for the best NPC position with Jan, thus I think the score should be higher.

The only disadvantage she has between Edwin and Viconia, is that she doesn't have the same number of spell slots, but on the up side she can use both, arcane and divine spells, even in contingencies, which can make her the best fighter out there.

The combination of self enhancing mage as well as priest spells makes for a very potent and devastating combination and shouldn't be underestimated.

If you somehow have trouble with the amount of spell slots available, use Wondrous Recall to restore the spells below level six (which is where the majority of the divine enhancement spells are).

If you're into using bugs, note that dispelling Cernd's claws can make him a VERY strong fighter. Otherwise, he has high magic resistance.

Minsc, in my opinion, is an okay fighter, but shouldn't be scored so high. He is one of the two fighter type characters that excel at filling out the tank role, but the other one, Valygar, simply has advantages which put Minsc in his place.

Again, I don't think Imoen should be rated as high as Jan can take her roles as well, but develop as both, a mage and a thief, not to mention that he's available very early on.

I've also gone on record as thinking Aerie is one of the best NPCs you can accept into a party, from a longterm power perspective. She's definitely slower going at first, what with two disciplines to advance, but that pays off in the end. Her contingencies are frightening in their possibilities. Just beware of melee, ranged attacks (at least in the early game), and situations where magic is more or less nerfed.

Crenshinibon wrote:In your opinion, what NPC would get a full ten?

I honestly think that Aerie is tied for the best NPC position with Jan, thus I think the score should be higher.

The only disadvantage she has between Edwin and Viconia, is that she doesn't have the same number of spell slots, but on the up side she can use both, arcane and divine spells, even in contingencies, which can make her the best fighter out there.

The combination of self enhancing mage as well as priest spells makes for a very potent and devastating combination and shouldn't be underestimated.

If you somehow have trouble with the amount of spell slots available, use Wondrous Recall to restore the spells below level six (which is where the majority of the divine enhancement spells are).

If you're into using bugs, note that dispelling Cernd's claws can make him a VERY strong fighter. Otherwise, he has high magic resistance.

Minsc, in my opinion, is an okay fighter, but shouldn't be scored so high. He is one of the two fighter type characters that excel at filling out the tank role, but the other one, Valygar, simply has advantages which put Minsc in his place.

Again, I don't think Imoen should be rated as high as Jan can take her roles as well, but develop as both, a mage and a thief, not to mention that he's available very early on.

For a start the scores are more or less arbitrary, only on what I've seen/used the NPCs for, which is probably not their full potential.

Minsc Scored high as he was the best fighter in my party last time I used him, and the party before that. He also scored because he is fun to have around. I never played Valgar long enough, but he was so dour that I couldn't stand him. So he lost points.

And I've little experience with Jan, that's sort of why I put this post on here. More people means more opinions = better reviews.

Feel free to add your own reviews or edit mine, hopefully we can come to an agreement.

In my opinion, the scores hardly matter, simply because there are so many items to boost them with, such as the Girdle of Fortitude.

In accordance with my personal play-style, physical stats don't matter for mages as they're under the effects of Shapechange almost every battle as soon as they can cast the spell.

I think it's best to score the characters without adding in how "fun" they are as it's more personal opinion rather than fact/play-style based information.

Also, it would be better to divive your revivew into categories of "Best Fighter", "Best Tank" and so forth. But be specific, because the way the game is made, any mage (with Shapechange) can probably take on a party full of high level fighters

I think I might just split up the NPCs into categories.

I added in the fun part as that's something that I used to pick which NPCs to use. I don't think it's any fun to ignore that part.

You are right, Craig. Fun is the most important part of an NPC. If the character isn't fun then why bother having them in the group? I don't care how powerful the characters can be if I don't like them in the party then they aren't going to be in the party....

*cough*Valygar*cough*

I had Minsc and Valygirl in the same party once (an ill fated group of nature freaks with me as a druid but we had Aerie in the party for arcane power and Yoshimo because he is feared by all). Aerie got killed which set Minsc into berserk mode. Minsc punked Valygirl, killing him in 2 rounds. Minsc then killed Jaheria, Yoshimo and then I had to run like a little girl because he was too close for me to get off any spells and he killed me, too. So whenever I hear people say Valygirl is sooo much better than Minsc it bugs me. I literally screamed out loud: "GET HIM OFF ME!!!"

Maybe this should be in the "embarassing moments" thread

It's precisely because of Minsc's psychopathic, murderous tendency that I prefer Valygar to him. He may be a morose SOB, but at lesat I know he's not likely to start murdering my party like Mins has on a few occasions now. Which is why, apart from when I incarcerated him in the asylum, he has always stayed behind bars in Chateau Irenicus where he belongs.

It annoys me when people sat how wonderful Minsc is, no doubt they thought Hannibal Lector was a nice cuddly guy too!

i've never that that many issues w/ minsc, i prefer him to val for his ability to wear heavier armor. the mace / vampire thing is aces too, he's also handy with 2 handed swords which have some really nice options very early in the same, (chaos, liliacor)

minsc does a lot of little things well, can tank, can scout, can missile support, can cast a few simple spells. that being said i never try to make him go berserk.

val is a better scout (but both are serviceable), has a weak backstab and can use the fury right out of the gate, but isn't as good a tank imho.

in the long run, minsc is the better npc all imho.

In the end, Valygar and Minsc both have the same tanking capabilities as Valygar can wear White Dragon Scale. Because of this, we can ignore the armor issue.

So, looking at the abilities, we see that Valygar has more spell slots, due to higher wisdom, and can backstab, which can really hurt if coupled with the high level abilities from the fighter pool. Either way, he's great at causing distortion among the enemy ranks.